diff --git a/R/url.R b/R/url.R
index 40e3ebab..bf2f8acb 100644
--- a/R/url.R
+++ b/R/url.R
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ url_parse <- function(url, base_url = NULL) {
   check_string(url)
   check_string(base_url, allow_null = TRUE)
 
-  curl <- curl::curl_parse_url(url, baseurl = base_url)
+  curl <- curl::curl_parse_url(url, baseurl = base_url, decode = FALSE)
 
   parsed <- list(
     scheme = curl$scheme,
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-url.R b/tests/testthat/test-url.R
index 4cc97b99..153309d6 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-url.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-url.R
@@ -44,6 +44,12 @@ test_that("url_build validates its input", {
   expect_snapshot(url_build("abc"), error = TRUE)
 })
 
+test_that("decodes query params but not paths", {
+  url <- url_parse("http://example.com/a%20b?q=a%20b")
+  expect_equal(url$path, "/a%20b")
+  expect_equal(url$query$q, "a b")
+})
+
 # modify url -------------------------------------------------------------
 
 test_that("url_modify checks its inputs", {
@@ -69,6 +75,14 @@ test_that("no arguments is idempotent", {
   expect_equal(url_modify(url), url)
 })
 
+test_that("can round-trip escaped components", {
+  url <- "https://example.com/a%20b"
+  expect_equal(url_modify(url), url)
+
+  url <- "https://example.com/?q=a%20b"
+  expect_equal(url_modify(url), url)
+})
+
 test_that("can accept query as a string or list", {
   url <- "http://test/"
 
@@ -78,6 +92,14 @@ test_that("can accept query as a string or list", {
   expect_equal(url_modify(url, query = ""), "http://test/")
   expect_equal(url_modify(url, query = list()), "http://test/")
 })
+
+test_that("automatically escapes query components", {
+  expect_equal(
+    url_modify("https://example.com", query = list(q = "a b")),
+    "https://example.com/?q=a%20b"
+  )
+})
+
 test_that("checks various query formats", {
   url <- "http://example.com"